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CEQA Developments
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517 published works
CEQA Developments
First District Holds Increased Enrollment-Related CEQA Challenges To UC Regents’ 2018 SEIR For Berkeley Campus Development And Minor LRDP Amendment Are Mooted By Superseding 2021 LRDP Update EIR And Passage Of SB 118
In an opinion filed April 27, and certified for partial publication on May 19, 2023, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) vacated the trial court’s order granting a…
CEQA Developments
Sixth District Holds Downtown San Jose Office Project FSEIR’s Brief Discussion And Rejection of “Compensatory” Mitigation for Historic Buildings Razed By Project Was Informationally Adequate Under CEQA Based On City’s Unchallenged Factual Finding That No Similar Historic Buildings Existed Elsewhere In City’s Downtown
In an opinion filed April 18, and belatedly ordered published on May 10, 2023, the Sixth District Court of Appeal upheld the City of San Jose’s (City) certification of a…
CEQA Developments
California Supreme Court Grants Review In Controversial “People’s Park”/Student Housing CEQA Case
On May 17, 2020, the California Supreme Court granted review of the First District Court of Appeal’s controversial and much criticized published decision in Make UC a Good Neighbor v.…
CEQA Developments
No Room At the Table: Second District Upholds Denial of Intervention in CEQA/Coastal Act Litigation Where Nonparties Failed to Make “Compelling Showing of Inadequate Representation”.
In consolidated litigation challenging on CEQA and Coastal Act grounds the Coastal Commission’s amendment of a coastal development permit (CDP) to (among other new use restrictions) completely phase out off-highway…
CEQA Developments
Slapping Down An Anti-SLAPP: First District Holds Next-Door Neighbor Opponents Of Residential Renovation Project And Related CEQA Compliance In City’s Administrative Proceedings Were Properly Named As Real Parties In Interest In Project Proponent’s Subsequent Mandate Action Challenging City’s Project Denial
In a published opinion filed April 14, 2023, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 3) taught some interesting procedural lessons in a CEQA/writ of mandate case arising from the…
CEQA Developments
That Dam Case (Again): Third District Upholds Oroville Hydropower Facilities Relicensing EIR Against Numerous CEQA Challenges
By Matthew C. Henderson, Arthur F. Coon
On April 7, 2023, the Third District Court of Appeal filed a lengthy published opinion – the latest installment in one of the longer ongoing CEQA battles in recent memory…
CEQA Developments
CEQA Does Not Apply To Investor-Owned Public Utility’s Exercise Of Power Of Eminent Domain To Acquire Electric Facilities Maintenance Easement
In a published opinion filed March 2, 2023, the Fifth District Court of Appeal held that where no governmental approvals were required, an investor-owned public utility was not required to…
CEQA Developments
First District Affirms Judgment Rejecting All CEQA Challenges To Oakland A’s Ballpark Development EIR Except Improper Deferral of Wind Impacts Mitigation
In a 72-page published opinion filed March 30, 2023, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) affirmed in full the trial court’s judgment, which upheld the EIR for the…
CEQA Developments
CEQA Updates: Supreme Court Depublishes High School Stadium Light Standard Exemption Case; Second District Modifies Pacific Palisades Opinion With No Change In Judgment
On March 22, 2023, the California Supreme Court granted the City of San Francisco’s stand-alone depublication request in (and declined to review on its own motion) the First District Court…
CEQA Developments
Second District Affirms Judgment Upholding Water Code CEQA Exemption, Rejects Plaintiff’s Attempt To Extend CEQA Review And Findings Requirements To Regional Water Board’s Approval Of Waste Discharge Permits
By Arthur F. Coon, Matthew C. Henderson
On February 27, 2023, the Second District Court of Appeal (Division One) filed its published decision in Los Angeles Waterkeeper v. State Water Resources Control Board (2023) 88 Cal.App.5th 874,…